Spiritual Possession

The Bible clearly teaches that human beings are capable of being influenced by spiritual entities, despite the fact that this contention runs counter to current sensibilities. The paired 12″ x 16″ collages on canvas shown below illustrate two such examples, but they are quite different in nature.

Matthew 8 recounts the exorcism of demons from a possessed man while Acts 2 tells the story of Pentacost in which the Holy Spirit descended on the congregation of believers. These two events remind me of Jesus’ story in Matt. 12:43-45 about an unclean spirit leaving a person but not being replaced by anything better. The spirit returns with seven other evil spirits so that “the last state of that person is worse than the first.” Basically, in the words of Bob Dylan, “You’ve gotta serve somebody.”